TopoPoster: International Poster Design Exhibition
Dec 13 – Dec 22, 2025
Building D, C·PARK Haisu Culture Plaza As a highly flexible medium of mass communication, the poster has persisted in human civilization for nearly 200 years. Following Alois Senefelder's invention of lithography in 1796, which laid the foundation for the large-scale, low-cost reproduction of colored images, the earliest commercial posters began to appear on the streets. By the mid-19th century, lithographic technology had matured and was widely adopted, giving rise to monochrome or simply colored printed postings for theaters, circuses, and product promotions. In 1869, French artist Jules Cheret established his own studio in Paris and gained fame for his vibrant and lively colored lithographic posters created for cabarets, theaters, and other venues. This marked the official emergence of the poster as an independent art form and a medium of mass communication in the modern sense.

Born during the Industrial Revolution and flourishing in the age of mass communication, the poster, as a global medium, has not vanished in the digital era but has undergone a redefinition of its significance and purpose. Initially contributing to the development of public visual literacy, shaping modern consumer culture, documenting social changes, and promoting the democratization and integration of art and design, the poster has now evolved to assume responsibilities such as sustaining the cultural vitality of physical public spaces, providing visual diversity to counter homogenization, connecting online and offline cultural nodes, and preserving the experiential value of slow media. It has transitioned from being an absolute center of information dissemination to a unique medium that emphasizes materiality, locality, cultural expression, and design value. Due to its physical presence, historical, design potential, and irreplaceability in specific contexts, the poster continues to play a significant role in the construction of human culture, while also reflecting the cultural and temporal undertones of different countries and regions.

In today's globalized environment, cultural fluidity, cross-regional dialogue, and decentralized design practices are profoundly reshaping society, humanity, and the field of graphic design itself. Graphic designers are increasingly unable to simplistically bind their identities to their geographical or cultural origins through a cultural essentialist perspective. The images in graphic design that translate cultural, social, trending, and philosophical attributes now resemble a landscape and texture that retain local cultural codes while participating in the permeation of global influences, rather than merely serving as superficially stimulating symbols.

For this exhibition, the curatorial team has selected the "poster", one of the most representative categories in global graphic design and a visual aesthetic and cultural communication medium closest to the general public, as the entry point. After balancing considerations such as academic value, public accessibility, contemporaneity, and cultural origins, the team carefully selected and invited over a hundred influential designers and studios actively working on the front lines from 28 different countries and regions. Their latest representative poster designs have been gathered to construct a temporary visual cultural community composed of posters within the exhibition space. Building on this, the exhibition is titled "TopoPoster" borrowing the perspective of topology to invite viewers to explore posters born from diverse cultural backgrounds and individual designers, and to examine their continuously varying yet distinct personal expressions, as well as their "essential structures" that remain unchanged amid the dynamic balance of "globalization and locality". In this era of mutual influence between "global integration" and "local interpretation", the exhibition offers insights into how graphic design responds to contemporary trends and shapes public visual culture through posters.    

By DUAN Zhihua
Joint Curator & Art Director of TopoPoster at SGDB
Founding Partner & Design Principal of Pocca
Adjunct Associate Professor at Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts
ABOUT CURATORSProf. XU Yibing
Director | Shanghai Graphic Design Biennale
Head of Visual Communication Design | School of Future Design, Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts
Professional Committee Member | Shanghai Artists Association Council 
Member | Shanghai Creative Design Workers Association (SCDWA)
Deputy Director | Visual Communication Design Art Committee, (SCDWA)
Professional Committee Member | Shanghai Interaction Design Professional Committee

LU Junyi
Director of Artist Selection| Shanghai Graphic Design Biennale
Professional Committee Member | Shanghai Artists Association
Founder | Lujunyi Design Live (A renowned independent design media in China)
Founder | NewOne Awards

DUAN Zhihua
Joint Curator & Art Director | Shanghai Graphic Design Biennale
Founding Partner & Design Principal | Pocca
Adjunct Associate Professor | Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts
CREDITSGUIDING UNIT
Shanghai Artists Association

ORGANIZER
Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts

EXECUTING UNITS
Art & Design Committee of Shanghai Artists Association
School of Future Design at Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts

CURATORS
XU Yibing
LU Junyi
DUAN Zhihua

SECRETARIATS
CHEN Mi
AI Jing
MA Jun

ART DIRECTION & GRAPHIC DESIGN
Pocca

EXHIBITION DESIGN
Threshold Design
XIONG Manting

EXHIBITION PRODUCTION
XIMEIart

MEDIA PARTNERS
Design360°  
Lu Junyi Design Live
Eastday

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT PARTNERSHIP
Rednote

EXHIBITION VENUE
C·PARK Haisu Culture Plaza

EXHIBITOR WORKSEXHIBITOR LISTEXHIBITION PHOTOS EXHIBITOR WORKSEXHIBITOR LISTEXHIBITION PHOTOS